Chili Verde

Recently purchased a pork loin on sale, $1.28 per pound. To me this was a great find, pork loin has almost 100% utility. Just a little trimming removing a little fat and silver skin and you're left with a very lean chunk of meat.

The decision was made to make Chile Verde, a green chile pork stew, and Mexican Rice. I have no set recipe and generally use what I have on-hand.

Chile Verde
The fixins
3 lbs Pork - cubed into about 1" chunk. Pork loin is good, but since it is a lean cut tends to be a little dry. Country style ribs, which I believe is from the shoulder blade, is another good choice since the meat has more marbling.
1 small can of roasted green peppers
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 Onion, chopped
1 T Shallot, chopped
1 T Oregano
2 teaspoons Thyme
Salt
Broth or water
Green Chile Salsa (Salsa Verde) - Optional



Cube the pork, season with about 1 or 2 teaspoons spoons salt, garlic, oregano, thyme, onion and shallot. Let marinade about 20 minutes.


Brown the pork - You can actually skip this step and add the liquid and green chiles. About 1 cup of liquid, you want the liquid to only come 1/3rd the way up the meat. If you add more liquid (as pictured below), the stew is a little soupy, which isn't bad.


Bring to a boil and turn to medium to simmer. For the pork loin, about 45 minutes is good. For the country style ribs, about 1 hour.

At the last minute, add some green chile salsa. The green chile salsa optional but adds a little bit of spiciness to the Chile Verde. Taste to see if you need to add salt.



The side dish - Mexican Rice
2 cups of Long Grain Rice
1/2 cup Onion, chopped
1 T Shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups of Broth
Salsa
Oil and/or butter

Brown the rice with the oil. I used an oil and butter mixture. When the rice is starting to brown, I added the onions, shallots and garlic to the hot rice so the flavors will permeate the rice.


Add the liquid and salsa. Typically for rice I like using 1.25 cups to 1.5 cups of liquid per 1 cup of rice. The salsa gives the rice color and adds additional flavor.


Bring to a boil and turn down to medium, medium-low, to simmer.
Before serving, fluff the rice and taste for seasoning.



The final results
Bowl of Chile Verde


Rice, Beans and Tortillas on the side.

Breakfast Sandwich

When we eat out for breakfast, I generally order biscuits and gravy. My goal is to find a place with good Southern biscuits and flavorful sausage gravy. We've found some places with good biscuits and gravy, but not an outstanding "I gotta go there every week" type place.

My theory is that you need start out with good sausage. However, there's not much to choose from locally. The typical brand, Jimmy Dean, to me is kind of bland. This after many attempts to make a flavorful sausage gravy. Bacon gravy I can do. Sausage gravy has been more elusive.

I found another brand (Independent Meat Co. - Mild) while shopping so I decided to try it out. Rather than going through the effort of making biscuits and gravy, I decided to make a sandwich so I can taste the sausage first.

The fixins:
Toasted, buttered Ciabatta bread
Shredded Cheddar
Scrambled eggs
Sausage Patty
A little mustard and mayonnaise


Assembled and Cut


The sausage had a weak sausage taste.
My search continues.
I did find another brand, Farmland. Farmland is a national brand so I have high hopes about the next package.

Fig Tree Cuttings

I've always had a fascination with gardening and fruit trees. Maybe it's something that reminds me of my childhood where we had apple, lemon, pear, loquat and cherry trees.

Of course, me trying to be different, I have been fascinated with unique fruits. Figs being one of them. I always thought they needed really warm temperatures for them to fruit, but found that there are a few varieties that will grow in cooler climates.

I received some cuttings from the Germplasm Repository.
This will be my first attempt to grow a tree from these "twigs".
Rooting Information from Encanto Farms

Fig Cuttings: Osbourne Prolific


Cut end


Cuttings bagged with a slightly damp paper towel.


Hopefully, in a few weeks there will be roots sprouting from the cuttings.

Vacation - Caravaning Quartet

Heading home!

S is going with me, which is great! I'm kind of tired being in the car talking to the pups. They just look at me with their head tilted with wide eyes. That makes four.

Our quartet: Two humans and two pups.
Also, can a caravan be one car?

Another plus, I can take pictures while I'm in the passenger seat. :-)

I've always been fascinated with the San Andreas Fault.
Maybe growing up in California we always have earthquakes in the back of our minds. San Andreas Fault Information

Also, I remember an epispde of The Six Million Dollar Man - The Secret of Bigfoot where the San Medrian Fault (actually, file footage of the San Andreas Fault) hid an alien colony where Bigfoot was a robot used to scare away the curious. This is also the episode where Steve Austin goes down the rotating ice tunnel and is mesmerized into unconsciousness. The Secret of Bigfoot

Image Ref: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/where.html


To me it's amazing that these picturesque rolling hills (are a result of the fault pushing the land together forming the Temblor Range.


I took this picture of Crystal Lake to try to catch the fog rolling over the top of the hill/mountains. I didn't dawn on me that the body of water is a result of a the fault creating a sag pond. Also, upstream there is now a dam.



After these many miles of driving even the pups were tuckered out.

S took this picture while it was my turn to drive. :-)


A long drive, but a very relaxing vacation.

I met and held my nephew, hung out with loved one's and didn't have to worry about work! lol

Total miles driven: A bit over 3,100 miles in 10 days.

Vacation - Oscar Party

Oscar Party - food, fun and a game.

Traditionally, we try to see all the mainstream movies before watching the Academy Awards. However, this year we only caught about 50% of the movies.

The Oscar Game
Print out the list of Awards
Each person picks a winner in each category.
A point for each correct pick
The person at the end of the show with the most points wins a prize.

The food
Chicken Strips – sautéed strips of chicken breast. Two sauces were made. A buffalo sauce (recipe on the bottle) and bbq sauce (KC Masterpiece).
Lil’Smokies in bbq sauce
Bruschetta
Relish tray – carrots and celery
Mushroom turnovers
Crabcakes
Chocolate Torte Cake

Drinks
Sparkling Cranberry Cider

Good food + Fun Competition = Great fun

The irony is K won the Oscar contest and she didn't even see most of the movies.

My Academy Award speech:
"I like to congratulate K for winning this years contest. Thank you S for hosting and setting up the feast. I'd like to thank Trader Joe's for providing the dessert, drinks and some of the snacks. Sorry I didn't take pictures, I was too busy filling my plate. I feel like I'm missing someone. I guess the musics means I have to wrap it up? I love you all! See you next year! Wooo Hooo!"

Vacation - Comic Convention

While visiting my family, that weekend was the Comic Convention.

The comic convention is a draw for comic collecting enthusiast, artists (professionals and those wanting to get into the business), sci-fi fans, animation and people watchers.

Many of the movie studios will send their stars as part of a publicity junket.
For example, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and Peter Segal (director) were there for the new "Get Smart" movie. Steve Carell was very funny. He's very good at ad-libbing.

Also, special scenes are shown to the fans and depending upon the budget of the movie, free movie passes are handed out for a sneak preview of the movie.

Personally, we mainly went to see Sergio Aragones, Sergio Aragones. I remember seeing his material in MAD Magazine. He's a very humble man and a great story teller.

The convention floor before opening to the general public.


There are people that definitely get into the whole scene by dressing up or showing off their homemade "toys".

Cobra Soldiers (from GI Joe)


Starwar's Storm Trooper


Starwar's R2 Droids - Radio controlled


Loki and Sigyn (I'm not 100% sure, but that's who they look like to me)


Wolverine vs. Mario
<

WonderCon was fun and a decent sized convention.

However, the largest comic book convention is in San Diego, known as Comic-Con. This is the premiere convention where people from around the nation/world attend. It's amazing how many dress in costumes. Also, the Movies studios really spare no expense with the publicity, special screenings and the give-aways. A truly amazing event.

http://www.comic-con.org/

Vacation - Traveling Trio

Mid-February I finally took some vacation.

My brother, J, and his wife, A, are proud parents of a new baby boy. The primary reason for my vacation was to see my new nephew, CT, and visit my parents.

First, I had to get there so I packed up my car, loaded the two beagles, myself and hit the road for our two day car trip to California. We are the Traveling Trio.

After a 10/11 hour drive, we were ready for our first nights sleep.


The boys were also tired and doing a quality control check on the bed, known as the Roll Test. :-)
The next day. The plan is to handover the boys to S and daughter K. They'll take the two boys for a few days while I continue on to visit my parents and my brother's family.

We were definitely getting a little weary being in the car. Also, we're not used to the warm, bright thing floating in the sky, Sol. We must be in California!


Catching a few rays and breathing in the fresh air.


Afterwards, I made it to my parent's house and rested. Over the next few days with my new digital camera I took many, many pictures of my nephew.



CT posing on the couch - having watched too much Star Trek growing up, when ever I see a baby on a couch I am reminded of the episode, The Corbomite Maneuver, where Balok, played by a very young Clint Howard, offers the landing party tranya.


However, no tranya here. :-)

Just a very cute baby boy!
Giving the camera a look ala Zoolander?


Uncle, me, gets to hold the baby.
Look no crying or screaming. :-)


Congratulations to J and A on their baby boy!